As Irish ministers prepare for meetings tomorrow and on Thursday with their EU counterparts on the Kosovo crisis, the Government is considering the use of Army barracks, some of which have recently been vacated, to accommodate refugees.
When EU justice and home affairs ministers meet in Luxembourg tomorrow the Government will agree to take up to 1,000 refugees.
A second meeting, of foreign ministers, is scheduled for Luxembourg on Thursday. The precise political objectives of this meeting have yet to be circulated by the German Presidency of the EU.
The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Andrews, and the Minister of State, Ms Liz O'Donnell, will meet representatives of the various Irish aid agencies in Dublin tomorrow to consider priorities in the spending of the £2 million which the Government has allocated for immediate aid.
Already, there is disagreement over the adequacy of the Government's proposed measures, with the Fine Gael leader, Mr John Bruton, proposing that 2,000 refugees should be taken in. "We should take as many as we possibly and logistically can, and we should increase that number as time goes on", Mr Bruton said yesterday.
Mr Bruton has written to the Secretary-General of NATO, Mr Javier Solana, calling for a four-day pause in the NATO bombardment - during the Orthodox Easter period next weekend - to allow for mediation.
Trocaire, the Catholic aid agency, has said it has reservations about relocating the refugees in Western countries. It believes that the strategy of relocation is "ill-conceived and an emotional response to a deep-seated political problem".
According to Trocaire's director, Mr Justin Kilcullen, the strategy has not been thought through. He commented: "We must help the Kosovans to return to their homes as soon as possible and not disperse them throughout Europe. Surely we should be devising a strategy to help the governments in neighbouring Macedonia, Montenegro and Albania to meet their basic needs."
Britain appeared to harden its line on opening its doors to Kosovan refugees yesterday when the Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, warned that airlifting thousands of ethnic Albanians to other European countries would send the "wrong message" to President Slobodan Milosevic.
While not reneging on Britain's agreement to accept a percentage of the ethnic Albanians, Mr Blair emphasised that his long-term strategy was to ensure their return to Kosovo.
In Brussels yesterday, the NATO spokesman, Mr Jamie Shea, said that the number of displaced Kosovans was now 831,000. Almost 390,000 people have fled Kosovo since March 24th.
Some 800 exhausted and hungry Kosovan refugees arrived in Turkey last night aboard five planes from Macedonia, the Anatolia news agency reported. The planes landed at Corlu airport in western Turkey, where four ambulances and a 20-member health team awaited them to provide aid.
The first plane, a Boeing 737, arrived with 150 people, mainly women and children, including seven babies, and was quickly followed by four others. Local Turkish officials said that two more planes were expected at Corlu during the course of the night, which was expected to bring the total number of Kosovans evacuated to Turkey to more than 1,100.
NATO missiles hit a crude-oil refinery near the northern Serbian city of Novi Sad and a bridge over the Danube last night.
The Yugoslav news agency Tanjug said huge flames and heavy clouds of smoke could be seen above the refinery.
It said NATO warplanes struck in or near at least five Serbian towns last night.
NATO missiles hit a railway bridge over the Danube linking the border town of Bogojevo to Erdut in Croatia.
Missiles struck a fuel depot in the northern town of Sombor. The residential area of the central town of Aleksinac was also targeted by the air raids. At least 10 civilians were injured, Tanjug said.